The present invention relates generally to loading ramps for ships, and more particularly relates to a new and improved system for coupling a ramp to a ship.
On many cargo ships, it has been the practice to secure a loading ramp to a ship by a device such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,735,440, issued May 29, 1973 to Hetmanski. Accordingly, many ships are already outfitted with ship related hardware illustrated in that patent. A problem with that ramp has been that movement of the ship relative to the pier, as might be caused by changes in tide, draft, trim, current and wind, have placed a great deal of stress on the ramp coupling system. It would be desirable to have a ramp coupling system which secures the ramp to the ship while allowing, without stress, a substantial amount of movement of the ship relative to the pier. It would also be desirable to have such a ramp coupling system which is compatible with equipment presently on many ships.